Into the Cold

"And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many will become cold." --Matthew 24:12
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I hate winter! I know when I was a child it was a different story. I could play for hours in the freezing cold, not caring at all where my mittens were or if my hat was on. I just knew that when it was cold, there was snow; that meant snow people to build, snow wars to fight, and snow angels to make. That was fine. In my youthful ignorance, I never thought a bit about frostbite, cold hands, or even freezing to death.
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Biologists tell us that the cold is a subtle thing. One story that was making its way around the web had to do with a park ranger in the Yosemite Mountains who was gone all day; at night he went into his cabin and was so tired he never lighted a fire. A rescue dog happened by the cabin and discovered the man, nearly froze to death. The dog licked the man and snuggled up next to him to warm the cold body. Later, the man commented the dog saved his life. He concluded the story by saying that the cold was so subtle. He did not realize it but in starting to freeze, the cold washed over him creating a warmth the man could not imagine. He never would have known he was freezing to death because it hit him slowly.
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I guess you could say that because of the iniquity (wicked lifestyles) that is going on around us, it is easy to get sucked into its lifestyle without a thought. A small thought originally passed off, develops into full-blown sin and one sin after another, without a moment of discernment, drops off into the pit of iniquity and we are lost in it.
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M*A*S*H was one of my favorite TV shows. Simply put, it lulled me into its hedonistic message--booze, cheap sex, and popularity are what you need in the world and you don't need much else. It later became small mini-dramas about values, but even then those values were much more worldly than the normal Christian can handle. The popularity of "Sex and the City" and the premium TV channels brought more iniquity into our homes; the lack of our Bible reading and prayer lives didn't help. And Satan began the barn dance that two-steps into the pits of hell for eternity.
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It's not a popular message. But it is one we must carefully evaluate and measure every day as we walk the Christian life. Eyes are watching us, even when we don't think about it, measuring our integrity against our words. May they find us faithful and not sinking slowly into the cold.
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Father God, thank you for the warning signs you put out before us. Help us to see the danger of slipping into the crevass that Satan has put before us, baited with things beautiful to the eye. Help us to keep walking in the steps of Jesus. In His name, Amen.